Service News

The Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) consortium and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) have signed a turnkey contract for the deployment of the Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) submarine cable network, which will span more than 13,000 kilometers.

Nokia and Australian telco Optus have signed a five-year agreement under which Nokia will manage and maintain key components of Optus' network infrastructure, operations and field maintenance. As part of the contract, Nokia and Optus will develop a Network Operations Centre (NOC), building on global best practices and leveraging local talent to deliver higher performance networks.

Huawei has signed a cooperation agreement with UnionPay International with the aim of working together to promote the globalization of Huawei Pay and accelerate its roll-out worldwide to provide a “better mobile payment experience” for Huawei mobile device users.

The Chinese government has set ambitious connectivity targets for 2020 as the demand for cellular Internet of Things (IoT) continues to increase. Statistics released by Internet of Things market research firm M2M claim that the global number of cellular Internet of Things subscribers increased by a whopping 56% in 2017, which was driven predominantly by demand in China.

South Korean conglomerate Samsung has unveiled an innovative and cutting-edge digital cockpit that is destined to reshape the future of the automotive industry. Samsung which is world’s number 1 smartphone manufacturer, revealed its new innovation with Harman at CES 2018.

Singapore-based ride-hailing service Grab, identified as Uber’s biggest competitors in Southeast Asia has acquired Indian-based startup iKaaz in an effort to develop and enhance its mobile payment strategy. The deal which has remained undisclosed will see the Indian firms engineering team partner with the Bangalore-based engineering office which Grab formally opened in 2017.

3G services will end in Taiwan by the end of the year, when operators' 3G licenses are due to expire, the Taipei Times reported. The island nation has 6.4 million 3G users who will need to migrate to 4G, as 3G licenses are scheduled to expire on December 31 and services will end in 2019.

New Zealand-based company Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP, and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity company specializing in undersea communications technology, announced that more than half of the 15,000km of undersea fiber-optic cable that comprise the Hawaiki transpacific cable system have been implemented by TE SubCom.

PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, and G-Mobile, a Mongolian mobile network operator, have signed a services agreement to protect and increase the Mongolian operator’s SMS revenue with PCCW Global’s A2P ValueMax, a solution that improves an operator’s A2P SMS business by preventing SMS fraud, maximizing SMS revenue and enhancing the subscriber experience.